Mabelle Gilman

Mabelle Gilman Corey, born Mabelle Gilman on December 4, 1874, in San Francisco, California, and died November 14, 1960, was an American actress whose career centered on musical comedy. She was the daughter of Charles Henry Gilman and Jeannette R. Curtis. Gilman attended Mills College in Oakland, California, and studied voice under Julie Rosenwald, training that shaped her subsequent work in musical theatre. She and her sisters Eunice and Pearl also studied voice under the noted tenor Jean de Reszke.

Gilman's stage career began in London, where she appeared at the Comedy Theatre on July 11, 1896, as Rosa in The Countess Gucki. Her Broadway debut followed in September 1896 at Daly's Theatre, where she played O Kinkoto San in The Geisha, which opened September 9, 1896. She went on to play Lucille in The Circus Girl, Juno in The Tempest, and Alice in The Runaway Girl, which opened August 25, 1898, alongside James T. Powers. She also took parts in Much Ado About Nothing and The Merchant of Venice before appearing in In Gay Paree, which opened March 20, 1899.

Her Broadway credits from 1896 to 1902 included the musical The Rounders, which opened July 12, 1899, the musical The Casino Girl, which opened March 19, 1900, the burlesque The King's Carnival, which opened September 9, 1901, the musical The Hall of Fame, which opened February 5, 1902, and The Mocking Bird, which opened November 10, 1902. Between her New York engagements, Gilman traveled to London's Shaftesbury Theatre, where she opened The Casino Girl on July 11, 1900. In 1903 she played the heroine in Dolly, a production she also performed at the Avenue Theatre in London on October 1, 1903, and she appeared at London's Comedy Theatre in the comic opera Amorelle, playing the title role.

By 1905 Gilman was among the leading musical comedy performers on Broadway. During an engagement of The Mocking Bird in Pittsburgh that year, she met William Ellis Corey, a millionaire who had made his fortune in steel and served as president of United States Steel. Corey was at the time married to Laura, with whom he had a son named Allan. Laura Corey traveled to Reno, Nevada, to obtain a divorce, satisfying the six-month residency requirement before filing, and was granted full custody of Allan along with a settlement of $3,000,000. Pittsburgh society threatened to shun Corey should he marry Gilman. Mabelle Gilman and William Ellis Corey married on May 14, 1907. As a wedding present, Corey gave his new wife a chateau in France, valuable jewels, and one million dollars. The circumstances of the Reno divorce and the subsequent marriage contributed to establishing Reno's reputation as a destination for divorce proceedings.

The couple settled largely in France, where Gilman entertained prominent guests at the chateau in the years preceding World War I. She had ambitions in grand opera but found her responsibilities as a society matron limited the time available for preparation. She expressed a dislike for the United States, citing excessive noise, and remarked that American men devoted more attention to financial matters than to their wives. Her marriage to William Corey ended in divorce in 1923. While residing in France during World War II, Gilman was taken captive by the Nazis in 1940 and held in an internment camp near Vittel. She was released in 1942 when all female prisoners over the age of 60 were freed.